Organizing and Preparing for the Trip
So we knew we were going to go and we set the date for 3 May, 2014. We gave ourselves a brief amount of time, about 3 months, to get our lives in order, last minute travel planning, so we could begin the trip with the least amount of stress.
1. Work – We both resigned. We both liked our jobs, our employers and the people who worked with us. We also knew it would be tough to try and communicate work-wise while traveling. Both of our employers were extremely nice about everything and we left on good terms.
2. To do list: We sat down and listed out the things we needed to do before we left. I used an app initially (Triprider which I will review later) and a spreadsheet. The original list is here along with updates.
3. Cat Sitter – most important. Really great friends of ours are taking care of Sophie for us. She is getting spoiled and fat.
4. Packing list: Things we wanted to take. Our original packing list is here along with updates.
5. Storage: Part of our To-Do list but I listed it here as it is a common question. The really bold and brave travelers out there seem to have sold everything they own. We put a limited amount of things we didn’t want to replace in a small storage unit called Taxi Box which is included in our expenses. Things we kept included major appliances, bed, our favorite bikes, and a number of little things including electronics, bedding, kitchen things and other items that would add up if we had to purchase them again. Since we plan on coming back to Sydney at some point, we figured it would be nice to have a box that we could unload into an apartment. We sold or gave away about 80 percent of what we had. We’ll let you know later how this worked out for us.
6. Car, House: We sold the car. We had been using GoGet, a way to easily rent a car in your neighborhood without the cost of ownership, while we sold our car. We plan on using the same company again when we return if only because we put a measly 12,000 km on our car over 4 years. I sold my house in the US in 2013 anticipating that we might want the capital for the trip or investing and we ended our month to month lease in Balmain as of 3 May 2014.
So we quit our jobs, sold most of our stuff including house and car, and replaced it with other stuff to take with us. Travel planning at its best until later when we found out what we really needed to take. Stay tuned!
